Trump denies ever urging Comey to back off Flynn investigation

Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri told reporters gathered outside the briefing room that Rosenstein had "acknowledged that he learned Comey would be removed prior to him writing his memo", despite the White House initially insisting that Trump fired Comey on Rosenstein's recommendation.

On Capitol Hill, Mr Comey was clearly the man in demand, with three committees working to seat him at their witness tables soon, two in the Senate and one in the House.

Asked what he thinks of the Trump presidency, Putin said it's up to the American people to judge and his performance can be rated "only when he's allowed to work at full capacity", implying that someone is hampering Trump's efforts.

Sunny Hostin followed up by confirming what a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent told Rachel Maddow last night: in Comey's line of work, "If it happened and you didn't write it down, it didn't happen", is the guiding principle.

The remarks, delivered during a luncheon with television news anchors, including PBS NewsHour's Judy Woodruff, came the day after Mueller was chosen to take over the investigation, which examines Russia's interference in the 2016 elections as well as possible ties to Trump's campaign. "You don't make that phone call unless James Comey tells you to make the phone call".

"People have to understand that now that we've handed it off to a special counsel that that's where most of the questions are going to have to be directed", said Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the third-ranking Republican.

In a letter to acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe on Tuesday, the Republican chairman of a House oversight committee, Jason Chaffetz, set a May 24 deadline for the FBI to produce all relevant material relating to any communications between Comey and Trump. Don't give in, don't back down.

The Senate Judiciary Committee demanded Wednesday that the FBI and the White House turn over evidence relating to former FBI Director James Comey's interactions with President Trump after reports of a memo that Comey was said have written detailing a request from Trump to wind down the Russian Federation investigation.

The president's comments come as he deals with backlash from firing Comey last week and subsequent reports that raised questions about whether he might have tried to interfere with an investigation. "I do think we need independent eyes to figure out what happened".

The person who described the Comey memo to the AP was not authorized to discuss it by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

And he adopted a skeptical tone toward the reports that have the White House in chaos and lawmakers scrambling to respond. Flynn was sacked after 24 days on the job, when it was reported he misled Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of discussions he had with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. "Memos, transcripts, tapes - the list keeps getting longer", he said.

Joy Behar expressed a concern that even if the memo does exist, Mike Pence might lie by saying he was in the room and didn't hear Trump ask Comey to drop any investigation. Comey said he replied that "I agree he is a good guy" but said nothing to Trump about limiting the investigation.